Talk:Liberating Atlantis
What's this, now? I hadn't heard. Sounds like it has to do with slavery, sure enough. Turtle Fan 20:29, 10 March 2009 (UTC) :I stopped by uchronia today. It actually only went up yesterday. :Since Spanish Atlantis is also is at issue, I suspect HT will go back to the anthology format for this volume, so he can address those two very big issues. Unless of course the Servile Insurrection actually begins in Spanish Atlantis, the US of Atlantis intervenes, then their slaves revolt, which ends in emancipation and annexation of the Spanish territories. :That would be a nice break from OTL parallels, actually. TR 20:37, 10 March 2009 (UTC) ::Could be interesting but I've got a feeling we'll just get reference to the fact that Spanish Atlantis got absorbed somewhere along the line. ::One other possibility the title permits, not that I believe it's what we'll get, is that the novel is set in the twentieth century during some sort of analog to the world wars. Atlantis is occupied and the bad guys are poised to strike at Terranova, and some Radcliff or other leads the resistance behind the lines until the good guys beat the bad guys back and launch D-Day from Terranova's east coast. I don't expect such a story (nor do I want it) but it's conceivable. Turtle Fan 20:44, 10 March 2009 (UTC) :::It is conceivable. Certainly Atlantis' role in a World War analog has potential. :::But I rather doubt it. HT made much too much of slavery in OA and TUSA to just say "oh we resolved that. Now let's go kill some Nazis." Or whatever. TR 20:48, 10 March 2009 (UTC) ::::Having a stop-off point halfway across the Atlantic would change WWII strategies a great deal, and now that I think of it I wouldn't mind delving on into that. But I agree the slavery story is what we'll get. I hope it is; part of Atlantis's charm for me is its antiquarian setting. It would lose that if it became just another WWII story--a setting HT has certainly done to death. :::::It occurs to me that there is another war, or series of wars really, that most historians agree now were in fact World Wars, that HT could embroil his Atlantis in while keeping the antiquarian setting. HT did hint that France is having problems, after all. And with its close setting, maybe Atlantis feels compelled to side with Napoleon more directly. Or maybe Spanish Atlantis just becomes Louisiana, and that's that. TR 15:48, 14 March 2009 (UTC) ::::::Hmm, hadn't thought of that. That could be fun--But didn't you say once that in the short stories Atlantis is very isolationist? I suppose that could be the legacy of a negative experience in the Napoleonic Wars. Turtle Fan 16:37, 14 March 2009 (UTC) :::::::It is, fiercely so. Certainly enough to make war on countries it feels is stepping on its sovereignty. Which was a factor in how we wound up in the War of 1812 with Britain. :::::::Just a thought anyway. I'd be most surprised (not to mention pleased) to see Atlantean troops turning the tide in Napoleon's favor at Waterloo. But HT probably won't be going that route. TR 01:59, 15 March 2009 (UTC) ::::::::Ah, fierce isolationism. I'm more used to thinking of the "Not my country, not my problem" sort that leaves a country without allies and without any interest in going to war on anyone's behalf. Such countries get drawn into wars when they're invaded themselves, but Atlantis is small and doesn't have the wealth of resources Terranova does, and while its location is useful as a spot for trans-Atlantic ships to stop, do maintenence, buy fresh food, and let the kids out to use the bathroom, but it's not vitally important. Once Spanish Atlantis goes, no one will have any pressing reasons to violate its neutrality in its own territory, and if it's isolationist it's unlikely to have much in the way of overseas interests. Turtle Fan 02:24, 15 March 2009 (UTC) ::::If he's going back to the novella collection format, all sorts of possibilities open up, but I don't think so; I think OA was an experiment with whose results he wasn't thrilled, so he went back to the tried and true. It will be one full-length novel telling one story, and that story will be of the end of slavery in Atlantis. Perhaps with contemporary subplots woven in, but perhaps not; "New Hastings," "Avalon," "Noveau Redon," and United States of Atlantis have all been fairly monolithic, wouldn't you say? Turtle Fan 20:54, 10 March 2009 (UTC) :::::I would. In the case of USA, perhaps to some detriment. TR 20:59, 10 March 2009 (UTC) ::::::Yeah, full-length novels need subplots. You just can't sustain one point for that long, no matter how interesting it might be. And it's doubly criminal in USA's case because there were so many other stories going on behind the scenes that would have made for great reading in their own right. :::::::It leads me to think that HT hadn't set out to write a full-length, instead going down that road just prior to the actual writing. TR 22:48, 10 March 2009 (UTC) ::::::::That could be, but I remember USA being billed as a full-length novel from the beginning, last spring or summer. Now I don't know whether the book had been written by then, but if it had that left HT plenty of time to tweak it. ::::::::And it's not the only time he's written a single-POV novel that was very, even overly, narrow in focus. Far from it. Turtle Fan 23:52, 10 March 2009 (UTC) ::::::You know, it's almost as though HT, knowing that we would see the obvious American Revolution parallels, decided that he could merely touch on major themes and know we'd catch the references and flesh out in our minds what he wanted to have happened. Yep, colonists are pissed about new taxes and trade restrictions. Yep, the Congress has after much deliberation declared independence. Yep, the French have agreed to come in as allies. Yep, a permanent federal government has been established. But any one of those things could have made for no less interesting a tale of getting there than the battle scenes did, and many even more so. ::::::So what color do you think the dustjacket will be? For some reason I've long pictured it in my mind's eye as being green. Turtle Fan 22:44, 10 March 2009 (UTC) :::::::Had not given it much thought. Green would be pleasing to the eye. TR 22:48, 10 March 2009 (UTC) ::::::::These covers are at least more interesting than most Turtledove characters, if not more informative; I remember the map being inaccurate, though I don't remember the details, and on USA's cover the armies are arrayed in such a way that does not reflect the military situation at any point in the book. ::::::::I keep thinking of it as green but my head tells me it will be red. Partly because that would complete the set of primary colors, partly because it will give warning that the conflict over slavery is even more violent than the WfI. Turtle Fan 23:52, 10 March 2009 (UTC)